Stars in Shadow Publisher Announcement

Iceberg Interactive, Dutch publisher of such smash hits as the Endless games (both Space and Legend flavors), StarDrive, and Armada 2526, has announced that they will also publish Stars in Shadow by Ashdar Games!

Stars in Shadow, due to launch later this year, promises the full 4X experience combined with a distinctive art style (as you can see from these awesome screenshots). Players can expect to take over the galaxy, eXploring amongst the vastness of the stars, building fleets, and encountering all sorts of alien races with whom to negotiate. Or, eXterminate. Whatever fits your fancy.

Stars in Shadow offers:

Turn based 4X space strategy

7 playable factions, each with their own history, proclivities, and prejudices

“We are extremely pleased to add Stars in Shadow… With its unique style combined with its feel for traditional 4X elements, this is certainly a 4X game that stands out from the crowd.”

Stars in Shadow is currently still in beta testing/development, but they’re currently aiming for a Q3 2016 release on Steam and other digital platforms.

Explorminate has been covering the gamefor quite a while now in articles, on YouTube, and in podcasts, so it’s very exciting to hear they have a publisher, especially one so well-regarded as Iceberg. Look for even more coverage at the Iceberg Interactive website, the Stars in Shadowwebsite, Steam, and coming to this space soon!

I feel sorry for any 4x game coming out in the shadow of Stellaris , Endless Space 2, and newMOO , very hard to compete with them – not much air left. but, best of luck to them love the genre and if they can do at least 1 thing new/well they may have a chance (if they come out at a more reasonable price than Polaris Sector)

Curious, how important is a publisher, especially now that its in Beta? What is their main contribution to the game, especially at this stage in the game? Most all games are digitally sold now a days, so I would think marketing would be the biggest factor?

ANOTHER Space 4x? At what point does the market become saturated?:O Also, isn’t Iceberg Interactive also publishing Endless space 2? As in, publishing 2 competing games…wait 3 (Dawn of Andromeda iirc is also II)? Am I missing something here?

That said, there is also the possibility for a ‘Starbucks’ effect. This is the effect whereby small, individually owned coffee shops (mom and pop shops as you would say in the USA) benefit from proximity to Starbucks, because it highlights their distinctiveness compared to Starbucks (which, by definition of being a chain, is always the same) instead of suffering.

In game terms, if a company can do Moo better than nuMoo, then it will gain alot of coverage and attention, given how many eyeballs are in the genre right now. Hell, even me, who until recently had only played Gal Civ TWO (and that upon release) is avidly following Stellaris development, Dawn of Andormeda and a host of other space based games. I’ve played Stardrive 2 and Starruler 2, and I’m a prime customer :). My limiting factor is time, and I feel that with such a crowded market, you need to be outstanding just to be the equivalent of what good was yesteryear (think red queen effect).

@ Troy, yes I was interested in listening to that. I’m doing some home improvements at the moment, so these podcasts of yours are really good.

My concerns are that so many companies are essentially trying to reiterate the formula, with minor tweaks etc, whereas I think they can and should be re imagining the entire concept of a game in space. To draw an imperfect analogy, everybody is focusing on making a new banana cake, asking if more sugar, or some icing etc will make a big difference, but really I’ve had my fill of banana cake and want someone to make a pancake.

That said, there are some interesting looking banana cakes coming out. I do have a question to the readers – is anyone else slightly disappointed in what nu Moo seems to be? It looks like there’ll be a crap tonne of clicking end turn etc, which is something I personally dislike.